This invention relates generally to the field of call center systems and related methods for providing customer service for callers interacting with the call center via a telephone. More particularly, this invention relates to a call center with a tightly integrated speech recognition platform that assists in handling calls and preparing reports on call center activity.
Many, if not most large businesses, government agencies, and other organizations serving a distributed base of customers maintain a call center for handling customer calls. The calls could be from potential or current customers. The type of calls can be related to current account information, billing issues, order entry, delivery, reservations, technical support, etc. For example, an airline company will typically build and staff a call center to handle flight reservations and arrival and departure times for its passengers. As another example, a phone company may have a call center designed to handle questions from subscribers regarding their accounts, service plans, inquiries as to service availability and new features, complaints about invoices, etc. Such call centers may be completely automated, but more often include a combination of a computer-based call attendant command platform that includes processing entities and system software that handles requests for information that can be handled completely in an automated fashion, coupled with a staff of trained attendants. Some call centers are directed to issues that are not usually amenable to automation (such as technical support) and such calls are directly routed to trained staff with little or no intervening processing by an automated computer system.
Most calls coming into a call center are unpredictable, in terms of the issues they cover. The number of issues that can arise will depend of course on the particular organization in question and the nature of its business and customers, but the number of issues can easily be in the hundreds in a two week period. Moreover, the issues that arise vary from week to week, as the business itself operates in a dynamic environment that is constantly changing (new products, new prices, competitor offerings, weather conditions, market volatility, interest rates, government regulations, etc.).
The present inventors have appreciated that, given the dynamic nature of call center activity, it is difficult to track call center activity and predict trends. Moreover, it is difficult to predict when certain issues are likely to arise, etc. Accordingly, it is difficult to appropriately train operators to handle the variety of topics.
In practice, call center operators typically allocate calls to call center operators based on some rough measure of the nature of the call, often determined by user response to prompts. For example, when a customer calls into a call center, they may be prompted to press “3” if they have a question regarding their invoice, and then, after the user presses “3”, the call is sent to a representative handling invoice questions. These allocations of calls based on gross categories will rarely be accurate and are highly subjective. Further, many calls cover more than one topic. If the caller in this example also has a warranty question, and a question regarding an accessory they wish to buy, the invoice attendant has to transfer the call to a different agent that handles warranty issues and another agent in the sales department. The customer frequently gets bounced around to different attendants. This can lead to frustrating experiences, with the customer having to explain their situation repeatedly to different attendants, waste of time, and other problems.
This invention provides a more objective and robust way to analyze calls and to help a service provider better understand calls and to improve call-handling and service-providing. The features of this invention are applicable to call centers generally. It is generally applicable regardless of industry, type of business or organization, or technology platform underlying the call center.